Heart and Soul
by Chris Walker
Summary: Following the departure of Hurricane Floyd in the waning months of the year 1987, a melancholy man and his young, mute sister discover a strange, amphibious, human-like creature incapacitated on the shore of a local beach. Freeing it, the creature takes to the sea, leaving the two in a state of wonder. The creature itself, curious and drawn to her saviors, soon returns to them.


**I have chosen to write this fanfiction as a homage/sequel to the absolute greatest film I was ever blessed with witnessing with my own two eyes (after many months of waiting , I saw it on January 14'th - I've never left a theater so dizzied with euphoria before).** **Yes, there are spoilers for the film in it. You have been warned, if just this once.**

 **May you enjoy it.**

* * *

With the last traces of the storm having departed this tropical coastline many hours prior, morning, still and fresh, had come at last.

While the new sky was filled with clouds of grey that gave the young day a most dull mien, golden sunlight poked through in random patches to grant a more fantastic illumination of the world before it. Traces of blue steadily showed itself from the heavens, but it would be some time before it would overcome the dreary clouds. The ocean which flowed freely and vastly below reflected the sky upon its choppy, foamy surf. The sea's waves crashed and lapped against the shoreline ahead of it in almost rhythmic pattern. Calmness rang clear in the salt-scented winds that blew steadily by.

Within the waves and amongst the sandy terrain that lay beneath it, a lone crab moved. With an exoskeletal body of brownish-green and small claws built for catching prey and defending itself, the small creature darted around the shallows in a sideways gait. This way and that it moved, ever wary of what may saunter by. Of what _it_ may saunter by.

For a while, the crab scuttled on over the rock and sand quickly, braving the salty murk held before it in search of food before mid-morning could become noon. The sun began to protrude more from the rapidly parting clouds, allowing more golden beams to highlight what went on within the shallows. Fearing that the light would expose it to potential predators, the crab moved faster before the time came for it to retire. It was only able to move a few inches further when it was halted mid-stride, as two black, pillar-like objects suddenly seemed to materialize in front of it. The size of them and the motions they made told the crab that what had come before it was not only a living thing, but also that this wasn't the entirety of the entity they belonged to.

Examining the things standing in front of it, the crab's black, bulbous eyes wriggled around on their thin stalks. Its simple mind instinctively sensed danger quickly enough, but no sooner did it try to scurry away when a hand broke through the water above and caught it. Its thin fingers grabbing a good hold over either side of its chitinous upper body, so that its claws wouldn't get a chance at repelling them. From there it was immediately lifted upward and taken out of the drink, quickly brought face to face with its captor.

Without the water to obscure the figure any longer, the crab knew what had snatched it. Its captor was a young woman of fifteen, bearing rosy cheeks and softly-hued acorn eyes that looked at the captured crustacean with nothing short of wonder. There was a scarf of light, bright crimson fabric wrapped around her neck, while long, curling locks of rich brown hair fell from her head. She wore an azure-blue, long-sleeved shirt and baggy brown jeans that folded into her darkly-textured boots—the 'pillars' the crab had encountered—that covered her feet and shielded them from the shallow water up to her knees.

In one motion, the crab was plopped like a stone into the water-filled metal bucket the girl held in her other hand. The girl looked at the crab once more where it now rested and then began marching out of the water and onto land, one step at a time. After getting onto dry, sandy terra, without a word she broke into a sprint that was just careful enough not to throw water from the bucket, kicking dunes and leaving bootprints in her wake. Running and skipping along the beach, upon rounding a particularly rocky corner, a figure came into her sight. She sped right to him, smiling all the way.

The figure, a young man nine years her senior, saw her clearly with tired ocean-green eyes and smiled back. He was a tall, skinny character, dressed in a white t-shirt and simple, tan pants. His skin was pale and his hair, short and black, appeared messy and ungroomed. His overall demeanor being worn and scruffy, this man whom the girl ran toward was her older brother, Blake.

As she approached him in her steady and fast stride, the high-pitched, squawking cries of seagulls of all kinds seemed to become even more abundant. The white and speckled birds were flying and gliding around in droves in the sky above, their keen eyes searching the coastline for the occasional small critter that attempted to find shelter from their prying gazes. Being opportunistic birds with some of the more dull but cunning minds of their kind, they generally avoided any attempts to land near the two, though they did hover close by, knowing enough that their like weren't of the variety that would actively seek to cause them harm.

Blake and this sister of his, Brianna, had been traveling along this section of the coast for the past fifteen minutes. Where they ventured to was a particularly polluted patch of the beach that most people came only to dump their junk and unwanted refuse at. It was the spot where they were forced to abandon their kite when Hurricane Floyd hit harbor, having caught itself on a tree as the winds were just picking up. Given the situation and the length of time since they last had possession of it, Blake had plenty of doubt that the kite was done for and gone forever, but Brianna, always one to show off her optimistic outlook on anything dire or otherwise, was not one to lose hope so easily.

She had scampered off ahead of him a few minutes prior, and now she was running up to him in an excited fashion, meaning that she must have found something of interest. Keeping her stride until they were just a few feet apart, she stopped and started to inhale deep breaths, having tired herself out a fair bit from the run. Blake smiled simply and spoke to her.

"Find the kite?" he inquired, his voice light and quiet. "Did it blow over here like you thought it might've?"

Still catching her breath, she shook her head.

"Find a strange little rock or some sea glass, then? Perhaps a sand dollar?"

Brianna, frowning, shook her head again, faster than before. Humming in minor vexation, Blake placed his hands on his hips, a brow cocked.

"Well then, did you find anything at all?"

Brianna's acorn eyes looked away for just a moment, and then she nodded, her smile returning. Looking and placing a hand into her water-filled bucket, she pulled out something. Bending over and placing what she had on the sandy ground below, nothing was hidden to Blake as to what manner of living being it was.

Putting the bucket aside for the moment, Brianna began to move her hands and fingers as Blake looked back to her. Her final motion was when she pressed her thumbs to the tips of their respective fingers, opening and closed them twice, like they were claws possessed by the arthropod she was trying to sign to him.

 _It's a cute little crab._

Nodding, Blake looked down and observed the crab for a few seconds longer. It looked right back at him. Again staring back up to her with one brow slanted, the other still raised, Blake replied with a humorous, "You don't say?" and smirked. He again glanced to the small thing, unable to disagree with her on the matter. "Well, it does look rather cute."

A few seconds passed and nothing more was said. Shifting his heel around in the sand awkwardly, he couldn't think of anything else to say to extend their little conversation. The cool feeling of the sea breeze passing through his disheveled black hair, Blake stuck his hands into his pockets and puffed out his cheeks. He chanced yet another look down at the crab, finding it having not moved an inch from its place.

Motionless where it stood in their shadows, the crustacean was still looking to them both. Still regarding them with its twitching eyestalks. Its feathery mouthparts occasionally flapped and waved. Only after Blake harmlessly prodded it with the tip of his boot and spoke "Shoo!" did it finally begin to scurry away, over the sand and rock between it and the oceanside. With any luck in its sideways stride, it would make it there before one of the many gulls above could discover and make a sure meal of it. Blake watched the crab flee, unmolested, for a few seconds, losing interest swiftly, but holding his stare. He finally stopped when he heard the sound of boots scraping over sand, attracting his attention back to Brianna.

She had grabbed the bucket and began skipping ahead again. She was still so very full of that typical, youthful energy, and while it at times it was a handful to deal with, there was little that could be done to temper that spirit of hers. Blake sighed to himself and continued onward behind his dear sister, breaking into a jog now in his effort to keep up with her.

As their terse little conversation had shown, Brianna couldn't vocally speak. The car accident that claimed their parents' lives many years ago, when she was only of the age of two and he was but eleven, left her with ruined vocal cords and a terrible crescent scar etched over her throat. The injury itself having robbed her of ability to talk, her options of expression were quite limited. But in showing off how she was ever adept at overcoming any obstacle in her path, she learned to cope with the loss growing up and took on sign language from a special course of classes. Wanting to converse with her more than anything, Blake learned it with her, becoming just as fluent in the silent tongue.

They lived in Florida with their aunt and uncle on the southernmost coast, near the town of Rocoso. Blake was a grown man now, and while a capable one, he preferred to keep residence with his family. If there was any true reason he stayed with them that he cared to admit, it was because he still valued his time with his young sister. She was, after all, one of the few things left in this world that kept him anchored to reality as it was.

Another dozen minutes of travel and the pair arrived at their destination. An unmistakable place, more like a blemish upon the coast, it was littered with junk of all kinds. Bits of tin cans, coiling wires and plastic, and the metal skeletons of many a household product laid strewn about all over the place. Far back, just beyond the beach, was the tree where they had lost their kite. Alas, upon a brief investigation, no string-bound toy matching their description was seen resting trapped upon its brittle, leaf-less branches.

Blake set his hands on his hips. His eyes looked solemnly to his sister, only to find her own gaze drifting elsewhere. She was not peering up at the tree, but to the bay. Seeing something he as of yet did not, she was soon from Blake's side to a spot by the waterside, where a cluster of seaweed that had been washed in from the tide lay sprawled out over the rocky terrain, amidst many a seawater-filled pool.

And there, protruding faintly from the cluster of washed up plant life with so slick and glossy a texture to it, was the kite. It was shredded terribly, resembling a more crooked rhomboid shape than what it originally was, but the damage was nothing irreparable.

Brianna had looked to Blake when he got to her, closed her eyes and gave her brother only the smuggest of grins.

Blake shrugged frankly, refusing to let his posture be the one to admit defeat. "So, it survived the storm. Barely. I guess I owe you five bucks, Bree."

Brianna only kept smiling. She would keep him to that wager, he knew. Spinning right around, she opened her eyes and marched up to their kite in a proud strut. Huffing, Blake watched her go at the remnants of the cloth, wood and paper toy with all the tenacity and likeness of King Arthur proudly pulling Excalibur from the stone. But then, strangely enough, as she started to yank it from its resting spot in a manner little less than regal of the knights of old, she suddenly halted. Blake took notice of her hesitation, his head tilted and brows furrowed.

"Bree, something the matter?" he queried when she failed to move for a good ten seconds. He had his answer soon enough, not from his sister but from what it was that had caught her ear. It was a sigh, long and vivid. Closer than the squawking seagulls of the sky and utterly their calls. Quickly did Blake discern that it was coming from right next to where Brianna stood now. It sounded from within the cluster of dried and dead plant life. A wheezing sigh, croaked and gurgled.

Blake didn't know what to make of it. Growing only a little closer, he tried to think of what was making the noise based on its queer complexion alone before doing anything else. Far more eager to find this out, Brianna acted first. She grabbed some of the weeds that seemed to be gathered between them and the spot where sounds originated from, all gathered and dangling down from a large rocky mass looming over her, and pulled on them. Piece by piece, she tore the curtain of moistened stalks of kelp from their resting spot. When most of it had been yanked down to the sand or was flopped away to the side, it revealed a hidden tidal pool. Peering within, Blake and Brianna discovered the source.

There, laying back-down in the large, but shallow pool of water spattered in shadow cast by rock and seaweed in equal measure, was a shape. A humanoid shape, belonging to a living being. For a brief few moments, Blake thought for sure it was a human. He thought for certain it was some man or woman covered in a skintight diving suit of some strange making he did not recognize, resting there for God-knows-why. But taking the time to let his eyes adjust to the dark corner of the otherwise sun-soaked coastline and have a closer examination, he was proven very, very wrong. His jaw lowered, and he turned pale when the realization dawned on him.

What had been concealed under the seaweed was a living creature alright. But human, it was most assuredly _not._ It bore a dark, yet pallid greenish texture to its body, highlighted by scant traces of blue. Possessing a hairless head with a thin face, it started with a pointed chin, which led to a lipped mouth, and then to a pronounced nose the formed in between two big, fish-like eyes. The most striking feature, after the face, were its external, filamentous gills. Partially hidden beneath the murky pool, the clearest thing about them was that they extended from its flesh, starting from the base of its collarbone to either side of its head; up to the place where its ears would naturally be, had it been human.

 _Had it been human..._

And right there, impaled in its abdomen and projecting outward from it plain as day, was a harpoon. The long metal spear was deeply reddened from its thin fore, all the way down to the wound it stuck out from—dried blood. A single barb protruded from behind its tip, meant to prevent anything it pierced from escaping so easily, like the tip of a fishing hook. As for its opposite end... it only seemed to get thicker the further down it went. Whatever its base resembled from behind the entry wound on the creature's backside and within the murky pool, it was indubitably thick. Too thick to pull the harpoon through all the way forward without severely widening the injury, most likely to a truly fatal degree.

Blake's attention, stricken with awe and worry, was sent away from the weapon and back onto the human-like beast it had impaled and pinned down. Judging from the low sounds that it was emitting, the creature, whatever it was, was in pain. It was in truly immense pain, and with the harpoon weighing it down as it did, it could not move from the pool. Not an inch. The skin on the pallid, belly-up section of its body not submerged in the limited brine was evidently dry and cracking, giving it that much more of an agonized visage.

Blake, motionless with surprise and unable to take his eyes off of the queer figure before him, stared at this anomaly for longer than he knew. Before he could finally blink, he witnessed a stream of water fly past him and at the creature, splashing all over the parched portion of its scaled body above the pool. It stirred for a brief moment at this interruption to its helpless misery, its legs and arms flexing out weakly before returning to inactivity.

Reeling back the moment this had occurred, Blake turned and saw his sister holding their bucket in her hands, now lowered to her side and visibly emptied of its liquid contents.

She looked to him with one brow raised and a spark of anticipation glistening in her acorn eyes. Just from those young, familiar eyes alone he knew what she was suggesting. With that expression, and with the action she just performed, even he could see that she wanted to help it.

"Are you _crazy?_ " he nearly shouted, his exasperated tone dry and scratchy. "We don't even know what that _thing_ is!"

Brianna dropped her bucket with a hollow clatter. Hastily, she made signs and motions with her hands, storming up to her elder sibling before pointing to the whinging being before them. _It's a person!_

"No, it's _not_ a person, Bree! It's some... _thing!_ " he shot back with his voice and hands, just in case she somehow didn't understand what he was audibly speaking. Her features curling into an angered grimace, Brianna was moving to turn around and rush up to the creature, regardless of her brother's words. Regardless as well of her naively obdurate behavior, he stopped her, pulling at her shoulder and bringing her visibly fuming face back onto his.

"Brianna, look," he tried to reason, his voice light and creaking. "I don't know what the hell it is, but it's a..." He paused his reiteration, thought of what to call it, then finished, "...A _wild animal._ Do you get that? Look at it-"

Blake was interrupted, as a sudden, piercing scream erupted from the location of the creature. Instantly, the pair glanced back at it, their conversation halted by it. The cry was high and loud; not human, but blatantly agonized. As the two could only watch, the amphibious person lifted its hairless head just enough from the pool it was soaking in to stare at the spear that had penetrated its waist with its glassy, fishlike eyes. Bringing both of its trembling webbed hands up to the object that pained it so, it tugged at the thick, heavy metal rod and gurgled for a few moments before eventually giving up and dropping its head back to the puddle it lay in. It uttered a weak moan before again going quiet and still.

Blake felt something more than an unnerving sting in his brain when he heard that bloodcurdling cry, but he could not put his finger on what it was. If anything, that was the last thing he could manage at this perilous, fragile moment. When he finally had the will to bring his blank view back to his sister, he could see, with immense dread, that Brianna's expression was as stoic as ever.

 _We can't leave it here_ , she signed, calmer and more controlled. Her glare was as hard on her brother as her determination to aid the monster in front of them. _It needs water. It needs help._ We _can do that._

Blake was silent. He tried to say something, to form a sentence to argue in any way with her statement, but all he could come up with after several seconds of thinking was an uneasy glower. Coming to the conclusion that her brother wasn't going to stop her so easily this time, Brianna left him and marched toward the side of the creature, this time unimpeded. Blake was still unable to pull her back again before she entered the pool, caution in her movement, and wrapped her fingers over the wrist of the creature's finned arm. Getting a safe grip, she began tugging it back, intent on aiding it in sitting up. At first apparently ignorant to this aid, the creature seemed to soon, if slowly and limply try to rise with her movements. The harpoon, still lodged terribly within its host, was at least now turned diagonal.

Now came the tricky part. If she could just position the creature correctly, Brianna knew she could wrench this tool out of it. Set it free, back into the ocean it surely came from before it fell so haplessly into this mess. Her fantasizing on such a moment as the sound of her brother's footsteps approached. She gritted her teeth at it. The audible grinding of her compressed jaws stopped only when she saw him walk past her and venture to the other side of the aquatic being. Seeing what he was doing, her lips curled into an overjoyed smile.

"Let me help..." he groaned poisonously to her beaming face, his boots splashing through the water as he as well stepped into the pool housing the aquatic, semi-human being. Heavy reluctance hampered his movement, but not enough to keep him from performing this deed, if for his sister's sake alone. Brianna smiled still truest glee enveloping her at this turn of events, then returned to tending to her part in the creature's liberation as Blake now tended to his.

He knelt down, placing his trembling hands on either of the creature's dark shoulders. One touch told him all he needed to know about it—that it felt wet, slimy and cool—just like a fish. Just like the kinds he would often catch from the dock and boathouse near their home, when he pulled them from the hooks that they swallowed. Fish or not, the sensation was ever an odd one. He shuddered, fear and disgust filling him. Biting his lip, he ignored the jolt of ice running down his spine and began to pull and heave the amphibious creature upward as his sister did the same. The entity visibly felt the assistance being granted to it right away, and, groaning with them, attempted to sit itself up.

 _Schhhlll..._

The sound of the harpoon's pole sliding against and through the flesh of the creature it had penetrated was a most grating, sickening sound to listen to, next to the whining of the being itself who endured it, of course. Its pitch low and long, the wailing sounds it made were as somber as they were agonized. Blake tried his hardest to ignore it, instead focusing on his work and thinking furiously of what was to come of it. Thinking, and, more importantly, _hoping_ that it would end on a note he wouldn't come to regret.

Carefully attempting to help the audibly hurting creature around the wicked barb that came between it and total freedom, Blake and Brianna maneuvered themselves at specific points accordingly. It was all an arduous endeavor, but past the gasps and cries and whimpers, signs of looming success was beginning to show its head. Just a little bit further and the grueling task would be over with. One more heave and pull, and then-

 _Schhhhlink!_

With that final push, the creature was wrenched free from the harpoon and its barbed tip. Finally detached from the crippling metal rod that had pinned it to the ground, the creature, now standing, now stumbling forth on its two legs, if only for the briefest moment, weakly fell forward with a light, gurgling sigh of clear pain and relief. Releasing their grip on the being the moment it toppled into the shallow pool of seawater and moistened sand before it, Blake and Brianna stepped back, half staggering, their work done. The harpoon itself, with nobody to hold it, dropped with a splash and a clang of water and stone.

Its movements great and sluggish, the humanoid being crawled away from the shadow of the rock, into the sunlight where the dampened sand was warmest. In a matter of seconds it pulled itself up, if just to its knees. For a long while it remained just like that, hunched over with a great, webbed hand clasped to the front side of its terrible wound. Blood, red and dark, dripped from the lower back portion of the injury that Blake and Brianna still had full view of, snaking down from its naked form and staining the water and sand below it.

The wound looked grievous and deadly, but this proved itself to not be the case for long. In what seemed like the span of but a few moments to the two onlookers, the bleeding appeared to stop. Slowly, slowly the gaping red hole started to... shrink in size. Regenerating with a startling rapidity, it was almost closed up as the third minute of the fish-person's recovery rolled around, feeling more like an hour to all present.

Blake could only remain gawking as he was at the hunched-over creature alongside his delighted sister as it recuperated fully from its debilitating injury. Awe and wonder replaced his previous fear completely. Wiping his slime-covered hands on his dampened jeans, he inhaled a deep, if rightfully shaken breath and took a single step forth to get a closer look. Curiosity had come over him now, and it demanded to be sated. It was as he took his second step, crunching over the sand, that something happened.

The creature heard it, and reacted immediately. With a single grunt, it left the ground in a smooth motion of its legs, standing up. As it rose, Blake paused in his advance. Its back straightening fully, the creature slowly turned and faced its saviors with its large, inhuman eyes.

It was hard to tell the overall size of the creature when it was laying impaled upon the ground, but now, standing upon its two legs and reared to its full height, nothing about it was hidden. Barely a head taller than Blake, the creature was nothing short of intimidating.

Another valuable set of details for consideration was that this being's body was on full, upright display for them to see. Given this opportunity, Blake and Brianna made out its more distinguishing features quickly, and clearly. For what it was and the fear it provoked, it gave off a queer and alien air of beauty around it that was offset by the sheer bizzarity of its appearance and the startling impact it left.

The underside of the amphibious person was of a texture much lighter than the rest of its body. It bore a thin, but firm waist lined to the base of its chest with rows plate-like abdominal scales, most eerily resembling particularly muscular woman's in shape and girth. The chest was somewhat robust as well, but was otherwise flat, lacking mammaries as any natural human woman would have.

Branching from its shoulders, the fore of its sinewy arms bore wavy fins extending along their interior and the elbows, the latter of which had protruding spikes like the one running down its back. Each limb terminated in a wide hand that possessed four fingers and one thumb each, the digits ending in sharp black claws, all connected by strands of webbed flesh evidently made for traversing water. Keeping with its feminine outline, it boasted wide hips and long, rigidly muscular legs, again lined with fins that wouldn't be unfound on a fish. At their base were feet with claw-tipped toes, digging deep in the sand and water it stood over.

As was originally discerned by Blake and Brianna when it was laying down, it had a human, yet inhuman face with which it observed them back. Its glassy eyes studied both of its rescuers with arresting intelligence, blinking occasionally and looking from one person to the other with jerking motions of its head. The gills that lined either side of its neck to its head fluttered occasionally, water dripping from them.

Everything was silent. The wind may have been whistling, waves may have been crashing into the shoreline, and seagulls might have been performing their shrill calls to one another, but through all of that, everything was silent. Noiseless as death, save for the sound of a heartbeat that thumped relentlessly within Blake's chest. He gulped down a wad of saliva down his dry throat, frozen where he stood as the first pangs of dread began rising in his mind.

What happened next did nothing but shatter the fragile peace. With little warning, the amphibious person's expression shifted from curious to irritated, its brows furrowing in an instant. The creature's back and dorsal fin arching, it roared. Its sonorous cry was a long, earsplitting scream. With it, its gills flared in a fearsome display.

Grabbing a hold of the equally-startled Brianna and pulling her behind him in one motion, Blake came between her and the monster. Clamping his teeth together and partially wincing, he braced himself, expecting the creature to attack like the inhuman fiend it resembled. To swipe and slash its wicked claws; to mercilessly rend him limb from limb as penance for his foolishness in aiding it. The fish-person's bellow finally fell silent and such a suspicion was soon proven wrong. In the span of a meager three seconds, it had turned about and sprinted off; off to the shoreline quick as a bolt, stepping and crunching harmlessly over the sand, kelp, and random scrap littering its way.

Approaching the end of the beach, with a single, great leap it dove into the briny surf, forming a fantastic splash with its impact. Submerging quickly below the green-hued waves, the creature vanished from sight and swam away, leaving but a few trailing bubbles upon the water's rippling surface to herald its passing. Several short seconds flew by, and those bubbles eventually popped into nothing. The only sound that now resonated on the beach was that of the waves lapping against the shore, and the numerous screeches of the gulls above.

Blake and Brianna stood still as stone in the embrace of the other, a pair of statues hewn into being by terror and shock. Only after a full minute transpired did they finally, slowly let their hug end and simply stood side by side. Both swallowed long, stale gulps of the salty air, trading stares. They couldn't think to do anything else but stand like this and cast fleeting glimpses to the ocean where the creature vanished, both still in utter disbelief as to what they had just witnessed. As to what they had just freed and fled from them in so abrupt and frightening a fashion.

Recuperating rather swiftly for such a fascinating experience, they walked back home with reclaimed kite in hand, discussing their encounter with this queer being the whole way there.


End file.
